La Gomera
14 November 2019
Paul Kember
We left Montana Roja, Tenerife, and sailed the 40NM to La Gomera. During this sail we suffered the effects of the low wind in the lee of the Tenerife and the wind acceleration zone between the islands with the wind ranging from almost nothing to over 25 knots. During the sail/motor across we did however manage to see a small pod of whales and our first turtle!
For our first night on La Gomera we anchored in a small bay called Playa de la Roja, so went from a red mountain to a red beach however the following morning we moved anchorage to Puerto de Santiago for a couple of nights, a small town, to give us access to buses, shops etc.
Our first day in Puerto de Santiago we looked around the town and visited the port authorities, twice, to show our paperwork to find they were closed and to work out the bus timetable. Not the easiest timetable to understand as it shows all the bus routes on the island as start and stop destinations only and doesn't actually say which one comes to where you are!
The anchorage was a little rolly at times but fortunately we had tucked ourselves in close to one of the cliffs to reduce the effects and was surprisingly busy with other boats.
The second morning with the full knowledge of the bus time table worked out we headed ashore to catch the bus. The bus stop was full of people so were confident we had the right time! When the almost full bus turned up it departed leaving at least half of the us behind, not to worry the third and final bus of the day would be along in three hours! Fortunately due to the generosity of a young couple, who also couldn't get one the bus, we were given a free and comfortable lift by car to La Gomera’s capital San Sebastian. It is home to numerous bars, restaurants, shops and great squares and is famous for being a stopover of Christopher Columbus before his voyage to the Americas. We walked around the town, visited the beach, walked up to the city view points and the city park complete with its tower.
The tower in the immaculately kept town park is called the Torre del Conde, The fort was the first building of any note to be erected on La Gomera, and is about the only one to have been more or less preserved in its original state. The fort was used to defend the Spanish invaders from the original inhabitants of La Gomera after they invaded the island and the onward defence against other attackers including pirates, the Dutch and the British. Built in 1477 using stone-and-whitewash Torre del Conde is considered the Canary Islands’ most important example of military architecture.
One of the bars we visited was used as a focal point for the rowers who take part in the Talisker Atlantic Rowing Challenge, an annual rowing race from La Gomera to Antigua in the Caribbean. A few years ago we knew a couple of the rowers from the Royal Army Air Corps in the race and we found their signatures and boat moniker in the bar. We took a photo and sent it to them via Facebook to remind them of their gruelling row!
The journey back to Mirage was successfully executed via bus and our backup plan of the last ferry of the day was not required! It makes us realise how much we take not only our car ownership but public transport for granted. We had intended to hire a car to explore and visit the national park whilst in La Gomera however were unable to in Puerto de Santiago as we needed to give a minimum of 2 days notice.
We always keep a daily check on the weather via windy.com as one of our quick sources of weather updates and noticed a long period of sustained high winds expected. As you are aware we can never make firm plans and therefore after a final quick visit to a supermarket we returned and prepared the boat for a return sail to Tenerife the following morning and then the onward passage to Lanzarote.
